Pope Francis Casts Doubt on Virgin Apparitions at Bosnian Pilgrimage Site
Pope Francis has voiced serious doubt about the authenticity of the supposed continuing apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje in Bosnia, saying he doesn't find much value on "these supposed apparitions." The pontiff bared his opinion ahead of the official result of Vatican's investigation of the phenomenon.
Speaking to reporters aboard the papal plane following his two-day visit to the Holy Shrine of Fatima in Portugal, Pope Francis said the woman "is not the mother of Jesus" in support of the earlier stand of the local bishop in Medjugorje that there is nothing supernatural in the alleged Marian apparition.
Medjugorje has been the site of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary since 1981, boosting the livelihood of the once-obscure village with pilgrim business. The pope's remarks are likely to impact in Bosnia where 10 percent of the population is Catholic and which earns significantly from religious tourism.
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A commission set up by former Pope Benedict to investigate the apparition did not publish its report but instead gave it to Pope Francis in 2014. "The (commission) report has its doubts," he said. "I prefer the Madonna as mother, our mother, and not a Madonna who is the head of a telegraph office who everyday sends a message at such-and-such an hour. This is not the Mother of Jesus," he added.
Last February, Bishop Ratko Peri belittled the apparitions as nothing more than a manipulation by the visionaries and priests who worked at St. James church. Several commissions have studied the phenomena, and all of them came to the conclusion there is nothing supernatural to the apparitions, he pointed out.
Aside from obeying the "seers" who made her come down from the hill, she also allowed people to touch her clothes and step on their veil. The woman's messages have an apocalyptic undertone, and she also laughed in a strange way. "This is not the Madonna of the Gospels," the local bishop wrote.
